Page 43 of Starstruck

I tore my eyes away from the locket, tears stinging the corners as Iglanced up at my parents. “What…” I swallowed the lump in my throat as my eyes darted between them. “What is this?”

It was Dad who scooted closer to me, while Mom let her eyes driftdown to the table, almost shamefully.

He cleared his throat. “We bought this locket the day we decidedwhat your name was going to be.” The beginnings of goosebumps began to trail my arms. “We were in this neighbourhood near the marina, just me, your mom, and Addy, who couldn’t have been older than eight. We were all talking about what our favourite names were, and what we wanted you to be called.”

“Mine was Maebelle.” My mom said, her smile widening. “I just lovedit.”

My head tilted as I mirrored her smile, before Dad shuffled besideme again.“I’d seen the name Sophie in a script that had been passed aroundwhen I used to work on the sets, and it had always been in the back of my mind.”

I glanced between them. “So, where did Marigold come from?”

They eyed each other before my mom tackled my question. “It wasyour sister, actually.” Before I could react, she carried on. “She said she had been doing a project for school, about botanicals and insects, and she became obsessed with marigolds. So much so that she wanted to plant a bunch in the yard. And she thought the name sounded pretty too. Told us that it was the birth flower for October, which was when you were due, and how they were symbols for joy.”

Mom’s eyes lit up the more she spoke, and something about thatmade me tilt my head and just watch her, existing in a light I’d never seen her in before.

“Anyway.” Dad stepped in, stealing my stare back. “We couldn’tdecide between the three of them, and we had to pick one quickly because… what were you Betty, two… three weeks out from having her?”

“It was two… she came right on time.” Mom sent a wink my way, oursmiles identical.

“Well, for whatever reason, we stopped outside this little jewellerystore, and when your mom looked in the window she called me over.”

My eyes fell back down onto the locket, my fingertips grazing thesatin that made up the chain and letting the scene play out in my head.

“The second I saw that locket, I knew we had to name you Marigold,I knew it was a sign.” Mom gushed, running her hands through her auburn strands.

“So… why are you giving me this now?” I smiled the question, butthat wasn’t the reaction my parents had.

Like before, both of their expressions grayed, as though they werereliving something that haunted them.

But my mom braved it, prying her balmed lips open. “You weresupposed to have this on your eighteenth birthday, last year.”

Oh.

Immediately I was back to that day.

I think that was the day I knew I wanted things to change withacting. The day I knew I couldn’t live like that anymore, sacrificing my dreams for someone else… It wasn’t fair. My birthday was spent on a set. Some stupid commercial, but the producers had asked for me specifically. I wasn’t sure why, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

The only thing I wanted to know was why I was spending my eighteenth birthday in the corner of a pop-up dressing room, crying into my hands so hard that I thought I wouldn’t be able to breathe again.

My eyelids snapped closed when I thought about that day, andinstead, I focused on the locket as I slipped it out of its box.

Dad cleared his throat. “When we were packing up your things foryour move here… we found it, right at the bottom of a box where we’d kept all your baby clothes.” My head sprang to his when is heard the cracks in his voice. “We’d forgotten all about it, and when we got talking about the day we bought it, it just hit us that we never gave it to you.”

Guilt swept over my mom’s face as she nodded at me. “Goldie, we areso sorry. For everything.”

My dad smoothed out my hair, which did nothing but make my lipstart to quiver. “We are, Goldie. And we hope that what we’re doing—selling the Malibu house, becoming a bigger part of your and your sisters' lives—is enough.”

Addy and I had a conversation after everything erupted, after thenight we’d all had dinner and told them that it felt like they’d been deaf to us our whole lives, talking about how we didn’t think they’d change their ways.

We didn’t believe two people, who were so adamant on seeing theirdreams come to fruition that they’d force their children to take them on for the versions of themselves that couldn’t, could ever change.

I’ve never been happier to be wrong about something.

I smiled at them both as I shucked a tear away from my lash line.“You listened to me, that was all I ever wanted, Dad. And I think me and Addy are both happy with you guys… and the house in Montana looks incredible. I can’t wait to see it when we’re back for Thanksgiving.”

Selling their mansion by the ocean was one of the first things theydecided to do. When they took a step back and had some time to think, they realised L.A. was rotting them, and getting away would be like getting clean, getting away from everything that was silently killing their lives.

“We can’t wait to have you, both of you. It’s just what we needed.”My mom beamed from her side of the booth.

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